Hla Lay Thu Zar doesn’t hold back when she explains serving time in Myanmar’s notorious jails as a political prisoner was harrowing. “There’s nothing good that could be said about being in jail – it’s poisonous. Myanmar’s prisons are run by people who don’t understand or care what human rights are.”
Since the military regime used a coup to wrench control of Myanmar from its elected government on February 1, 2021, it has locked up tens of thousands of people for protesting - elected politicians, health workers, teachers, civil servants, artists, musicians, students, workers, and journalists.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP-Burma) estimates, that as of May 15, 2024, the military regime has killed at least 5,063 people and arrested another 26,683, including 5,457 women. Of those arrested, 170 were journalists with 47 currently serving jail sentences, and another five journalists killed by the military.
Secretary of the AAPP,Ko Bo Kyi, said 166 people have been sentenced to death and four have been executed. Adding to the AAPP’s documented death toll are another 1,800 people who have yet to be identified and verified. Ko Bo Kyi said arresting, torturing, beating, jailing, and killing people for their political opposition is sent as a stark warning that no one in Myanmar is safe from the military.
In the weeks after the coup, the military-appointed State Administration Council (SAC), ignoring international law, reworked and amended legislation to allow it to frame and jail its opponents – health workers, parliamentarians, students, academics, lawyers, public servants, workers, and journalists.
The wide spectrum of amended laws – treason, sedition, illegal association, terrorism, explosives – have been used to hand out 3-year to more than 20-year jail sentences, including the death penalty, to people opposed to the military.
Ko Bo Kyi explains the amended laws are nothing more than a veneer of legality to cover the junta’s ongoing violence against the country’s civilians.
“The State Administration Council (SAC) uses these laws to intimidate people. They do this to create a climate of fear – ‘you will be tortured…even sentenced to death’. This is a warning to the rest of society. The SAC denies there are any political prisoners. If arrested you are classified as a criminal…worse than a criminal…you’re seen as against them - to be beaten and tortured and denied any rights. Political prisoners have broken no laws. They should not be in jail, and if jailed they should be kept separate from the criminal population.”
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) ranked Myanmar as the world’s second-highest jailers of journalists in its annual Killed List, citing the military’s recent jailing and killing of journalists and media workers.
Fear of attacks, harassment, intimidation, censorship, detainment, and assassination for their reporting has driven journalists and media workers underground or to try to reach relative safety in neighbouring countries.
Hla Lay’s reporting of the coup was judged unlawful, by the military appointed State Administration Council’s vague legal definitions, and she was charged on May 1, 2021, under section 505A of the Penal Code specifically amended to silence its critics.
Two weeks into the coup, the military sponsored media outlet, the Global New Light of Myanmar, published the amendments in its February 15 edition, signalling the military’s intent to strangle and criminalise freedom of speech, expression, and association. The intention of Section 124-A; as published in the GNLM is clear; it states in part: “Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt... and Section 505-A: cause fear, spread false news, agitate directly or indirectly criminal offence against a Government employee...”
Hla Lay’s ‘crime’ was to livestream the civilian protests opposing the coup, the police and army’s brutal response, including the use of ‘live’ ammunition, and the shooting and battering of unarmed protesters.
Hla Lay explains that as a journalist the coup was not a story she was prepared to miss.
“It was a massive story… an important story. People were angry and protested in their millions against the military’s theft of democracy.”
Hla Lay admits covering the protests in the beginning was a career-high.
“It was an exciting story. I couldn’t stop covering it. I reported on the shootings, arrests and beatings of protesters by soldiers and police. I was out on the streets doing this two, or three times a week.”
I’m meeting with Hla Lay and other recently released political prisoners in a small Burmese styled tea house on the edges of the Thai-Burma border.
Zu May and San Dar Thwin join Hla Lay at the table. All three women are former political prisoners jailed under Section 505A. Hla Lay got out of jail in January 2023. Zu May and San Dar Thwin were released five months later on May 3, 2023.
Hla Lay looks around the cluttered teahouse, moves plates and leans in as she describes what led to her eventual arrest, detention, interrogation, and 15 months in Myanmar’s notorious Insein Prison.
“I kept working during the coup – live streaming the protests. In the beginning, the atmosphere had a party feel, but it soon changed. March 11, was a bad day. There were reports of shootings in North Dagon [Yangon]. A protester, Ko Chit Min Thu, was shot by a sniper in the head. When I got there his body was gone, but I could see the bloodline where they dragged him away.”
Despite the military’s deadly use of live ammunition at the street demonstrations, Hla Lay explains why she continued to work as a freelance photojournalist, to cover the protests, and why she continued to livestream the military’s abuses.
“The military coup made me feel my life goals… my hopes for the future were disappearing. Knowing that my young daughter’s future was at stake made it worse. I’ve spent my career reporting about human rights violations - now the coup felt like mine - everyone’s rights - were about to be taken from us. I made the decision to expose and report the human rights violations by the military.”
After her arrest warrant was issued, Hla Lay had been in hiding for four months when police and military tracked her down on September 1.
“I was caught at a busy junction… they came in four vehicles… plainclothes men with guns surrounded me. I was blindfolded and taken to Yar Kyi 1 Interrogation Centre. They wanted me to give names, activists, journalists, they beat me with a rattan cane. I could feel that’s all they wanted to do - beat me. When I did answer their questions, they still beat me.”
Hla Lay believes jail and torture are used to disempower and dehumanise political prisoners.
Ko Bo Kyi, co-founder and spokesperson for the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners agrees with Hla Lay.
“In jail political prisoners have no rights. Some political prisoners have taken to rebelling against the food or other forms of mistreatment, this is met with torture. Women prisoners are subjected to sexual abuse when returning from their court hearings back to the jail. Full body searches…this is done to dehumanise them. Female and male guards force full body searches – anal and vagina. This is not new, it’s always about how they can dehumanise the political prisoners.”
AAPP’s Ko Bo Kyi explains Myanmar’s prisons and labour camps' notorious reputation for torture, corruption, lack of health care – disease and injuries are left untreated - overcrowding and poor sanitation all make sentences hell for political prisoners.
Hla Lay agrees with Ko Bo Kyi and adds it’s the support from other political prisoners that is critical to surviving the harsh prison conditions.
“The worst time in jail is all the time…there’s no good time. Political prisoners are treated like slaves and prison guards regard themselves as our masters. The living conditions are really bad. Food is so bad you would not feed it to animals. Medicine and health care are non-existent, but we work together to support each other.”
Hla Lay voices concern for a journalist colleague recently handed an additional ten years with hard labour for breaching Myanmar’s counter-terrorism law.
“She was already serving three years for defamation. It’s crazy, she did nothing illegal.”
The journalist Hla Lay is referring to is photojournalist, Hmu Yandanar Khet Moh Moh Tun, who was run down by a military vehicle when covering a street protest on December 5, 2021. Video footage clearly shows the military pick-up travelling at high speed towards the back of a line of protesters and ramming into and through them.
Hmu Yandanar, who was filming the protest, was seriously hurt when she was dragged under the truck’s wheels, resulting in severe injuries to her head, legs and arms. Her Myanmar Photo Agency colleague, Kaung Sett Lin’s, legs were broken. Both journalists were arrested and received three-year jail sentences. Kaung Sett Lin released from jail in January this year confirmed the seriousness of Hmu Yadanar's injuries when interviewed by VOA.
“Her whole body and her legs were completely crushed.”
Hmu Yadanar was sentenced in May 2023 to an additional ten years with hard labour for breaches of the counter-terrorism laws, increasing her sentence to 13 years. Kaung Sett Linn told VOA that Hmu Yandanar’s extra ten-year sentence was motivated by hiding the extent of her injuries from international scrutiny.
“They lied about the case and unjustly sentenced her to a longer prison term. I think the junta did not want the public to see the disfigured face of Hmu Yandanar because of the injuries they inflicted on her.”
Hla Lay met Hmu Yandanar in the prison hospital and confirmed she is doing it tough.
“She lives there, but to call it a hospital is a lie. It’s just a bed in a dormitory. She is living on her own. She has to use crutches. Even going to the toilet with her injuries is difficult. She doesn’t get any help from the prison hospital staff. She is strong. Her medical treatment is ineffective. There’s no medicine. The hospital is just a storage room. It’s like she is having to heal her own wounds.”
In recent weeks Zu May, Hla Lay and San Dar Thwin together with other women political prisoners formed the Women’s Organisation of Political Prisoners. Zu May explains that the organisation aims to advocate for the release of political prisoners and to support those who have been released and those still in jail.
“We will fight for political prisoners to have their rights acknowledged and given. We will protect and take effective action against sexual violence perpetrators, and we will continue to find ways to keep helping former political prisoners and their families.”
Phil Thornton is a journalist and senior adviser to the International Federation of Journalists in South East Asia.